Sunday 6 September

I wake early. I have to do a few things before we are packed and ready to leave at 9:30. We check our luggage into storage and join with the others going into town. The subway is really a great system. Cheap too. We have options on what to see first. We head towards the Kremlin. There is so much security to go through. Entering the train station on the path and into the kremlin. We see several cathedrals inside the kremlin. Everything is very tidy and you get in trouble if you leave the path or head in a wrong direction by correction of a whistle. The cathedrals look large, but inside seem small. It's just a shame they are just such tourist destinations. There are so many ppl. After finishing looking around we try and go back to the red square the way we came, but we are stopped and gestured to go around. There is so much gated areas and only one going in the direction we want. It's a bad choice. We end up standing in a crowd for some religious procession. I feel like we are gated in! Over an hour later the crowd moves and as we progress we are able to get near the fence and slip through in a gap. We feel free finally! We head to the square and go through yet more security screening. The square us nice and the colourful cathedral amazing and very Russian. We get photos and look around. There are many stalls selling local food and souvenirs. I buy some corn on the cob. We then go to the underground shopping mall very close and (more security) Malcolm buys a new polo shirt very cheap on sale. We start heading back to the hotel. We walk by a display of food pictures in big frames. We stop at the mall to buy food for the train. It's raining when we get out but thankfully it's a short walk to the hotel. We eat some bread and hummus and pastries for dinner. Now the wait till 10:30pm. I get a nasty headache which is eventually relieved by Panadol thankfully! We sort out cabin allocations for the train. Then wait some more. At 10:30 we board a mini van for the train station. It's raining quite hard so it's a bit of a dash out of the rain. Awkward too, with two heavy grocery bags and a 5L water bottle. Now a 50 min wait and we finally board the train. The cabins are small. We are sharing with another couple. It's a bit in and out of the hallway to get sorted. Finally sheets come and I'm set for bed.